Detroit's Big 3 make plea for bailout

2008-11-18T21:21:32Z2008-11-18T21:26:42Z

Executives with Detroit's Big Three auto makers have been on Capitol Hill today, pleading with Congress for a $25 billion lifeline.

They're trying to save their companies from collapse, which General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner says would be "catastrophic." Wagoner says three million jobs would be lost in the first year and "economic devastation" would follow. Wagoner adds that the industry's problems don't stem from mismanagement, but are the direct result of the global financial crisis. He says the meltdown has severely restricted credit availability and reduced industry sales to the lowest per-capita level since World War II.

But a rescue plan for auto makers appears to be stalling. The Bush administration and Republican lawmakers say they oppose using a $700 billion financial industry rescue fund to help the auto industry. Even Democrats seemed less than sympathetic. Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd told Wagoner and leaders of Ford and Chrysler that the auto makers' troubles are mostly "self-inflicted." Still, Dodd says, if the auto makers collapsed, "hundreds of thousands" of people would lose their jobs."